Title: Multiple Category Dropdowns Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Multiple Category Dropdowns * [dewski007](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dewski007/) * (@dewski007) * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/) * Hey folks, I’m starting up another WordPress install for a creative project and am having a difficult time with categorizing. The trouble is that the contents could be categorized in any one of three ways between product type, genre, and price; neither is mutually exclusive to another. Nothing is for sale, it’s all informational so people can browse to whatever they are interested in. I have been looking at plugins such as the Ajax-Category Dropdown, but run into the initial dilema that it requires “category==>subcategory1==>subcategory2.” Other plugins such as [jsearch](http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/wordpress-hacks/jsearch-plugin/) may be able to get the job done, but they are out of the way, more complex than I want or need, and replace the normal search functionality. * The idea is that the visitor can select a category (or a combination of any of the three categories) that fit their interests and the page populates with posts that fit their selections (if any). * I was thinking that having three dropdowns (one for each “type” of category) and a “filter/search” button in the sidebar would be the best way to do this, but I can’t find any plugins that will do the trick the way that I envision it. Does anyone know of a plugin that could help with this? If not, would anyone be willing to help me explore ways to write this? * Wow…Long message is long. Thanks for checking this out, everyone. * Cheers! Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398037) * Have you looked into using custom taxonomies? * [http://www.simonwheatley.co.uk/2009/03/11/custom-taxonomies-in-wordpress/](http://www.simonwheatley.co.uk/2009/03/11/custom-taxonomies-in-wordpress/) [http://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/05/06/custom-taxonomies-in-wordpress-28](http://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/05/06/custom-taxonomies-in-wordpress-28) * Thread Starter [dewski007](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dewski007/) * (@dewski007) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398091) * I think using three custom taxonomies is exactly what I need to use. thanks, esmi. * That being said, I browsed custom taxonomy plugins to see if any match what I’m trying to do and as far as I could find, one doesn’t exist. the best way I can explain what I’m trying to do is by using an apartment search as an example. They can choose “1-bedroom” for the taxonomy “Bedrooms,” “1-bath” from the taxonomy“ Bathrooms,” and “$1000-$1500” from “Price Range.” Each of these taxonomies would have a dropdown for the viewer to choose what they wanted, and some sort of “ submit” or “search” button would find all posts with that criteria. On the same note, the viewer could choose just one, such as “price range,” and leave the rest blank to get a broader range of posts. * Does anyone know of something like that or willing to give me a direction to move if I wanted to write it? * Thanks again, esmi. * [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/) * (@michaelh) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398093) * What about custom fields instead. * With these three plugins: to manage the input [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-field-template/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-field-template/) * to manage ‘access’ [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-field-taxonomies/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-field-taxonomies/) * to manage ‘access’ [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smart-sort/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smart-sort/) * [scribu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/scribu/) * (@scribu) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398095) * dewski007, I have a plugin in the works that I think will fit your needs (using custom taxonomies). * Stay tuned. * Thread Starter [dewski007](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dewski007/) * (@dewski007) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398102) * [@michaelh](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/), thanks for the suggestions, but I don’t quite think that using that combo of plugins would accomplish what I’m looking for. Especially after heavily researching taxonomies versus custom fields the past few days, I think that finding a way to make custom taxonomies work is the best way to go. * [@scribu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/scribu/), I’ve bookmarked your site and I am looking forward to seeing what you are working on. It seems like your Query Multiple Taxonomy plugin would _allow_ wordpress to do what I need, now it’s just a matter of creating sort methods. Any ETA on the plugin? * Thx to both of you for your input, I’m going to keep this post open in case anyone else has other suggestions or solutions. * [rjaus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rjaus/) * (@rjaus) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398162) * I am also extremely interested in a plugin that makes dynamic filtering of custom fields easy to manage. * WP-Smart-Sort-Premium would have been perfect, but is no longer available. * Looking forward to an update scribu. * [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/379488?replies=3#post-1450698](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/379488?replies=3#post-1450698) * I’ve only briefly used custom-field-taxonomies, but what I did like was the meta_cloud() and meta_filter_box(). If these two functions were extended I could find alot more uses for it. * [pmdci](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pmdci/) * (@pmdci) * [16 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398172) * Custom taxonomies is a great addition to WordPress, but I have a question, tough. This is quite cool for someone who needs additional taxonomies. However, I think that a similar approach can be used by simply using categories and child categories. This is pretty much what I need in my case. * since wordpress function to list categories allows you to add/subtract categories, or show only categories which are child of a given parent subcategory, I am pretty sure one could achieve the following example by only using categories. Imagine the following drop-down menus * CITY -> New York -> Chicago -> Philadelphia * FLAT -> 1 bedroom -> 2 bedrooms -> 3+ bedrooms * In this example, have two main categories (CITY and FLAT) and each one has 3 child categories. The idea would be to have two drop-downs for each category. I am sure this is possible. * However, the category widget for WordPress is pretty bad (since it doesn’t allow me to pass custom php code for it, such as to remove a specific category), and to do this coding by hand would be a pain… * any ideas? * [pmdci](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pmdci/) * (@pmdci) * [16 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398182) * The solution: * Use WP3.0 with [gd-taxonomies-tools](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gd-taxonomies-tools/) plugin. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘Multiple Category Dropdowns’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [category](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/category/) * [sorting](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sorting/) * [taxonomies](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/taxonomies/) * 8 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [pmdci](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pmdci/) * Last activity: [16 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multiple-category-dropdowns/#post-1398182) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics